red velvet cake batter.... kinda creepy.

it started out very very clean.

clean paper cups.

clean muffin tin.

liam was very clean and did a great job putting each paper liner in each hole. in fact - what spurred the spontaneous RED VELVET cupcake fest was that he found the muffin tins and brought them out and said "COOKIE". so i gave him some paper liners just for fun... to see if he could do it. And he could. he filled 24 holes... perfectly. how could i not help him finish the job?

the only box of cake mix i had in the house was red velvet. (the emphasis on the RED)

the red is kind of creepy.

see what i mean?

and he looks a bit sneaky...

like he is up to something.

see what i mean?

the kitchen was a mess. it looked like a crime scene. but - he was happy.

we were all happy.

and now we have 24 red velvet cupcakes to eat!

green car, flag truck and a postcard

VERY RANDOM post today... but a few tiny things happened today that I don't want to forget.

I just got home from picking up Liam at Gail's.
On the way home he said "GREEN CAR" "GREEN CAR" "GREEN CAR"... and i didn't think much of it until i looked around, and next to me was a bright green mustang. wow. I mean, I know we work on colors, and he might associate green with preschool things like grass and frogs... but a car... really? And NOT when we are working on colors?
hmmm... i had to test it.
So we pulled into a parking lot where a big semi truck was, and i said "Liam, what color is the truck" and he said "Flag".... it was red white and blue... he was right!
smart little boy!

which leads me to "postcard"... he got one today. From his teacher. His TEACHER! He is starting school next week! Her name is Ms. Amy and she said that she can't wait to see Liam and that his school year is going to be fun and exciting.

We can't wait!

TGIF!

Happy 2nd Birthday Liam!

Happy 2nd birthday Liam!!!
Somewhere around mid August of 2008... in a sleep deprived fog, I closed my eyes... I opened them sometime around August 19th 2010 and I am amazed at how my life has changed. BUT, this isn't about ME... this is about YOU.... Limabean, you are TWO!
Two years amazing.
Two years delicious.
Two years curious.
Two years fearless.
Two years outrageous and energetic and tireless.
AND TWO YEARS YOU!
We MADE IT Liam. Past the sleepless nights, past the breast feeding, past the mommy and me groups. Past the bottles and baby food, the exersaucer, the bibs, the Mylecon, the infant seat carrier, the spitups and learning how to walk.
Past the first, second, third, fourth and beyond airplane rides... past the infinite Dr's appts. and vaccinations. The swaddling baby burritos. the teeting, the BABY phase... and LOOK. You are a boy. Just LOOK at how far we've come.
YOU ARE TWO.
You are a total stud. The coolest kid we know. The coolest kid MOST people know. You are endearing and sweet and personable and just a pleasure. YOU can TALK - I mean seriously Liam, we COMMUNICATE! You can tell me when you are hot, cold, tired, hungry, happy, hurt, bored or whatever... we CHAT. We watch movies together, we have a LOT OF FUN together. This doesn't mean that you don't frustrate me from time to time, because lord knows... YOU DO, and clearly, you get frustrated too. This frustration appears in bouts of tantrums, yelling, lots of NOOOOOO's, and sometimes even hitting mama. I KNOW, Liam, that this is just because you don't quite know how to handle your feelings yet... I get it. It's ok. You are learing. You will never STOP learning, I am still learining... and its O.K.!
You are SWEET (did i mention you are sweet) , cautions, careful, empathetic - yet lively, full of spirit and joy.
You love to color, and I LOVE that you know that you ONLY color on paper (or "pee-per" as you call it). You love to swim and play and RUN. YOU LOVE LOVE LOVE MOVIES... I am amazed that you can sit through a WHOLE Disney Pixar film. Your favorite movies are:
CARS - you know ALL the names of ALL the cars
TOY STORY and TOY STORY 2 - You adore BUZZ and have a crush on JESSIE. You have a Mr. potato head which you call "TATO" and you are very skillful at putting all the parts in all the right places (most of the time.)
NEMO - you LOVE Nemo, Nemo's Daddy AND Dorrie
MONSTERS INC - you try so hard to say "Wazowski"

You are our joy, our love, our life.

We love you sweet angel.

xoxo

Happy Birthday 2 year old big boy.

Love,
Mama and Daddy

watching Nemo

opening up his bday gift of the WHOLE TATO FAMILY

HAPPY 2nd bday Cake. They spelled his name wrong, so we had to do a bit of a recovery mission on the cake.

Sheer joy in seeing his candles and his cake (this is the 2nd of the cakes!)
cake is even better for breakfast the next day!

Liam climbed 81 steps on his birthday morning! He looks pretty happy about it!!

2 year stats.

height 36 inches
weight 30 lbs

85th percentile for both

happy and healthy little 2 year old!

the dr. did mention that liam has a slight heart murmur, but said this is nothing to be concerned about - just something to note and watch.

he did great at the dr. and only cried because he didn't want to take his clothes off... other than that, he was cooperative w/ the doc. and an overall star patient!

back to reality...

i barely turned on a computer the entire time we were on vacation. i think the fact that the resort charges $15.00 per day for internet access had a little to do with it, but i am glad i stayed fairly "unconnected". the only problem is that now i have a TON to catch up on... oh well, everything good must end...

today is the first day back to work.

also, Liam has his 2 year dr's appt at 10:00 - and is going back to Gail's for some temporary daycare until preschool starts on Sept. 1st.



this week i will catch up on a post about Liam's 2nd bday - year 2 stats - and the big vacation to San Diego.

images lost...

last night we celebrated Liam's 2nd bday with his grandma M. it was pretty fun - we unveiled the BIG bday gift (which he LOOOVED), he got a really cool Thomas the train from gramma which he also LOVED, we ate cake. Liam was so awesome with the cake and kept saying "my birfday".
we took about 200 photos.
we LOST about 200 photos.

wtf?

what happened?

i took the memory card out of the camera and insert it into my computer to pick and choose the ones i liked (like i have done thousands of times before).. but THIS time. NOTHING.. no photos from 08.15.2010.... the last set was the moon photos from a couple of days ago.. WHERE DID THEY GO? they disappeared between camera and computer.

has this ever happened to you?
suggestions on retrieving them?
is the memory card bad?

i was sick about it all night. some of the shots were priceless....

i guess the silver lining is that his ACTUAL bday isn't until later this week... so, we can have a "re-do".... but still...

aarrrgghh.

there she goes...

...there she goes again....
OFF TO COLLEGE!

Tiff's last day with us was yeserday - Friday the 13th. As much as I am going to miss her, I am so proud of her - as she is off to college in San Luis Obispo (one of my FAVORITE towns ever). She has been such a blessing in our life - making my life easier day by day - and enriching Liam's little life in every way. She was so cute on her last week... she wanted to do something fun with him every day...
so this past week they: went to the water park, fed the ducks, went to the farm, went to the indoor kid gym, took lots of walks AND she brought him "Toy Story 2" DVD for his bday!! She also left an unbelievably sweet note for Kurt and I! What a lucky kid Liam is.. and I am a lucky mom to have snatched up this amazing opportunity to have this gorgeous girl for 6 weeks this summer... the fastest 6 weeks ever!

It is a good thing we are going on vacation this week, because I don't think Liam will understand why "his" Tiff wont be knocking on the door bright and early every morning.

Good luck Tiff! We love you.

Tiff and Liam at the Farm - he is feeding the goats... his fave!

note to self...

time is fleeting and memory fades...
kurt and i were chatting with pastor steve at church yesterday (he is the wonderful man who married us and leads the sheparding team at our church) he was telling us some funny family stories and things his kids used to say - and he was saying that they had waited too long to write certain things down that they wish they could remember... everyday things. like that his kids called the pacifier an "ucky-doo"... or that his daughter was petrified that she would go right down the drain with the bath water. things like that.

so - here are a few, that i don't want to forget about Liam.

- he calls his pacifier "tar"... we have NO idea how he came up with that one!
- he says "sure" when he means "yes"... its so cute, and gives him that carefree laid back persona
- he loves to jump... he counts... 1....2.....JUMP. he never tires of this.
- his favorite foods right now are hot dogs (which he used to call "hawks" but now can say "hot dog") and oatmeal - which he still calls "oh-meeeel"
- his favorite movies are toy story (a story) cars (he calls lightning mcqueen "stickers") and nemo (which he calls Neemu)
- he is beginning to say things like "tank u" and "i sorry" which melts my heart
- he loves going in the pool - even when its freezing. we will heat up the hot tub a little to bring him in, and he says "i want the BIG water" which means he wants to go in the pool...

these are just small little everyday things - that i hope i never forget.

date night

it's not the kind of date night you might think...
my date, he isn't my husband.
my date... he isn't even two years old yet...
my date... was great.
he was perfect, and charming... he didn't hold the door open for me, but he made me smile... at least a million times a minute.

meet my date Liam. he took me to see my favorite band, the wiggles. how did he know they were my favorite?

he kind of liked them too...

this is what his eyes looked like all night long.
isn't he dreamy?

this is his buddy Sam... we had to say hello.

after the show, he even bought me a DVD - so we can watch the Wiggles together anytime we want.

isn't he a peach?

i don't think kurt would mind... do you?

a snippet from the show...
"i hope you've all enjoyed the show... and now it's time for us to go"

tractor tongue

Where, you might ask did we go to find these pint sized tractors? Where else, but Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark. I hadn't been there except for last fall when we went to their huge and popular harvest festival that happens every year. So, when Tiffany and Tom along with twins Nate and Abby suggested we go yesterday, Liam and I jumped on the chance. And we are so glad we did... it was a totally different experience and going there when the weather was pleasant and the crowds were manageable was a treat (well going anywhere w/ T,T and the twins is a treat) ! Plus the kidd-o's are a little older now- and really got into the activities... Liam loved climbing on all of the tractors (of course) he even poached farmer Freddies REAL tractor when we were out in the field picking raspberries and tomatoes. Freddie was a good sport about it :)
Along with any good farm come farm animals... here at Underwood they have Emu's, Pigs, Chickens, Ponies and Goats... Liam loved the goats... they were so funny. He especially enjoyed feeding them, you could buy goat feed and feed them through these feed tubes. We bought two rounds of food and Liam wanted "MORE MORE MORE"... and he (and I ) were amazed that the goats walked the high beam high above the farm with fierce strut of a supermodel. I didn't take a whole bunch of photos because lugging around a big camera at a dusty farm + chasing after a running toddler isn't an equation that is super successful!

There is something about a tractor that brings out the tongue of a toddler - check out these pics of Liam, Nate and Abby - as their determination abounds, their tractor driving skills flourish.

Liam-tongue

Nate-tongue
Abby-tongue